Hitman’s creed

Really glad to hear that Io-Interactive are aiming for three seasons with Hitman. I know it’s not confirmed yet, but I think the whole episodic thing has worked out really well for them and I’m definitely looking forward to the new Bangkok level. I noticed someone at the weekend said the Blood Money was the best sequel ever, and although I tend to agree with them I think that the Italian level in the new Hitman is as good as anything in that game. The other ones aren’t quite up to that level but they’re not far off and if the last few are good then who knows.

I think the gap between new maps really helps to make the most of them and the elusive targets and all the other little extras have been really great. Other companies should really take note of how things have gone here and I could definitely see it working for something like Assassin’s Creed.

Then you might start looking forward to new entries rather than dreading to find out what bloated sequel they’re clogging the charts up with this time. Spreading out the big games across a longer period of time could really help I think.Tobin

Fan rescue

Nice feature on Metroid at the weekend, even if it is depressing to see how Nintendo treats the franchise. Maybe the NX will be its redemption but as a fan I’m not going my hopes up. However, there was some good news on the franchsie’s birthday: a fan made remake of Metroid II.

Metroid II is the often forgotten Game Boy game that came before Super Metroid and, unlike the NES original, is still very playable today. Especially now with this new game. The graphics are done in the style of Super Metroid (it was black and white originally) and the whole thing looks almost like a new game.

Of course Nintendo being Nintendo they’re trying to get it shutdown, so the files may become difficult to get hold of, but here’s the main website and you should be able to sort yourself out from there. I’m willing to be it’s a lot more fun than Federation Force!Keston

Nothing to hide

I’m not sure I understand what Sony is being so protective about No Man’s Sky for. As far as I can tell the biggest worry is whether it’s only going to be good, instead of the best thing ever. No one thinks it’s going to turn out to be a complete bomb are they?

And what’s all the talk about spoilers as well? The game seems to be pretty story-light and it’s all about the exploration I thought. It’s not like it’s some mega-budget sequel that they’ve bet the company on either, and yet I can’t remember the last time a company was this funny about a new release.

As usual I’ll guess we’ll never really know either, as all this will be forgotten once it’s actually out. Are you playing it now, GC? Did the patch come out as promised?Signfy

GC: The patch is out now and we’ve been playing it all day. We’ll have something up on our experiences for the morning.

Everything or nothing

So Sony are probably going to release the PlayStation Neo this year after all? Well, you can’t say 2016 hasn’t been an eventful year for games, at any rate. Between Pokémon GO, VR, multiple new consoles, and no summer games drought I think we’re doing pretty good. It still needs an all-time classic game to top it off though I feel, although maybe that will be No Man’s Sky or one of the Christmas games.

After a terrible start to this generation things are finally getting into gear and I’m very optimistic for the future, especially with NX and Scorpio still to come. As has been pointed out many times I can’t help feeling the biggest problem with the games industry is its inability work a calendar. Everything at once or wait through two years of nothing. Oh well, there’s no point complaining as they’re clearly not going to listen.Petra1

Luck of the draw

I completed SOMA at the weekend and it is the best ending I have seen to a game since Silent Hill 2 or The Last Of Us. It was truly haunting and I couldn’t stop thinking about it after I finished the game and even went back to play it again. Just an amazing end to an amazing game.Another Simon

GC: Unfortunately our spoiler text option seems to be broken at the moment, so we’ve had to delete the description of the ending from your letter. But we will say that we definitely agree with you and that the story elements of the game are handled extremely well.

The right side

One of the best sequels ever still has to be TIE Fighter. It surpasses the original X-Wing game easily, especially since it actually meant you were on the Dark Side. After X-Wing being so difficult, especially the original version of the trench run, it was rather strange to start flying in ships without shields. But it just meant that you had to start actually dodging a lot more, and so learnt to fly even better. Apparently the studio was quite sceptical to release a game where the player was thrust into action on ‘the wrong side’. But the story more than made up for that.

Just a pity that the last incarnation of the series is already over 15 years old, there must be a lot of possibilities to make new games in this series as the whole expanded universe and the new films have so much going on. They should be able to make something enjoyable and it has multiplayer written all over it as well. Would be great to have this (and any other from this series) on the PlayStation 4, although I can fire up my PC and play all of them whenever the mood takes me it would look even better on a PlayStation 4.ButcherEVG (PSN ID)

GC: TIE Fighter is one of our favourite games ever, but there’s no way it could ever work on a console. It uses almost every key on the keyboard, often twice over, and is vastly more complex than any publisher is willing to make a Star Wars game. The best you could hope for is some sort of unofficial homage or highly simplified spin-off.

Reads like a six

Well, I had a feeling it would happen – and for the same reason that put me off from buying it in the first place – but I have given up on Witcher III. I got fairly far, completing the Bloody Baron quest. But it just never hooked me… you know? The world and lore was uninteresting – a few female characters seemed compelling, but they came and went very quickly.

True, Elder Scrolls does not have the greatest world or lore either, but I’m free to make my mark on it as any character of my choosing. Being Geralt was just too constricting. I never liked him and that voice is so utterly absurd. And yeah, God Of War had an off-putting lead also – but the gameplay was far more dynamic. You fight a hydra from the off and that is just a great hook. I don’t know what the hook is meant to be here – the combat? I prefer Fable II. You can shoot skeletons in the crotch. Or Dragon’s Dogma.

The story? The consequences? Story is very ‘gritty British drama’ and I don’t feel like waiting around to see how much of an impact the consequences of my decisions have.

It’s really irritating too. This is a game that was well received and just like Borderlands 2 and Dark Souls it’s not pulling me in. I just kept thinking: I’d rather be playing Skyrim. Or Fallout. Or any of a very long list of role-players from either the East or the West. Just goes to show though, don’t it? Review scores are never a match for your own opinion.DMR
PS: Don’t get me wrong – Witcher III isn’t bad. It’s probably an eight out of ten in my own personal estimation. Sorry, CD Projekt RED. I really like you guys as well.

Interesting is in the eye of the beholder

For those interested the new Xbox One Slim has been given a tear down by the team iFixit and some interesting finds have been found.

The Verge article reports the following: The Xbox One S features a SATA III hard drive — specifically a Seagate Spinpoint M9T ST2000LM003 2 TB 5400 RPM with 32 MB Cache — a slight upgrade over the SATA II drive in the original Xbox One.

There are also rubber bumpers around the optical drive that should keep the console quiet when a disc is in use, a massive fan, and a nice Easter egg featuring Master Chief on the optical drive covering.

The video of the teardown can be seen here, which I welcome everyone to watch.gaz be rotten (gamertag)

Inbox also-rans

Sorry GC, I may well have had my head up my own backside the past few weeks playing Dark Souls III (so good), but did I just read Ganache talking about ‘the delay of XCOM 2 on console’ correctly? XCOM 2 is coming to console?! 27th September!….?Matt Kirk

GC: It was announced in June, it’s out on September 30 in the UK.

I was really chuffed to bump into Geralt and Ciri in Preston the other day after the ComicCon…wriggy74

This week’s Hot Topic

The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Xane, who asks what’s your favourite ever sports game?

With the Olympics now in full swing we want to know which sports sim you’ve enjoyed the most over the years and why. It can be any sport on any console, but we’re interested in why you enjoyed that one in particular, when compared to other sequels and other games that covered the same sport.

Was it a game you played primarily with friends or on your own, and how much does the social aspect impact your enjoyment? Do you feel the quality and variety of sports games is good enough at the moment, and what sports do you think deserve better games?